Sanders: ‘My father’s family was wiped out by Hitler’

Bernie Sanders spoke passionately about his Jewish heritage Sunday night after being asked during the Democratic debate if he kept his religion in the background during his campaign.

“No, I am very proud to be Jewish, and being Jewish is so much of what I am,” he told CNN moderator Anderson Cooper. “Look, my father’s family was wiped out by Hitler in the Holocaust. I know about what crazy and radical and extremist politics mean.”

Sanders said he learned that lesson as a young boy, and he recalled seeing store employees who'd been marked with numbers while imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps.

“I am very proud of being Jewish and that is an essential part of who I am as a human being,” he added.